Dialing It Back To Basics

This article is written by Karissa Tunis For more on this topic, check out the full Simplify collection

I’ve always been so fascinated with cleanses. I love hearing the arguments from both sides on if they actually work or not. But I guess I’ll never know because I have yet to find one I can stick to for more than a day.

But even with my failures, they always leave me feeling inspired, sometimes to the point that I even want to take it further and makeover my entire life. And until this point I have been unsuccessful, but I think that is about to change.

We finally have a buyer for our house (yay….it’s only taken a year…), but that means I can finally implement a change, and it’s going to be a big one! I honestly can say that I am truly very excited, and I am praying and crossing my fingers that it all falls into place!

Sure there are bittersweet moments. We have lived in this house for 11 years and 9 months. We brought each baby home from the hospital to this address, and these walls hold so many incredible memories!

But it’s time for a new chapter, a great adventure, and it starts with DOWNSIZING! I can’t believe that my hours of binge watching Tiny House Hunters is almost turning into reality (do apartments count?), but we will soon be moving our family of five from 4000+ square foot of luxury living, into just over 1000 square feet of cozy!

To some that might still seem large, but we live in the suburbs where families are used to decent size homes and big back yards. So for us, and all of our pets, this is a change, a big one.

It will not be permanent, but it will be for a while. We are still trying to figure out the next step that is right for our family, but for now, and for some time now, we have been dialing it back……

We have been/are dialing it back to the basics.

What wasn’t a priority has gone out the window. What hasn’t been used in a while, doesn’t serve a purpose, or doesn’t bring us sentimental joy, is going on the curb. I am taking it one room and one closet at a time, but I am going through everything!

If I have to give it time and energy, it needs to be worth it. And if I have to squeeze it into our cute little townhouse, it needs to be functional and/or valuable.

So Craigslist, Goodwill, and the Garbage Man have become very familiar. And I’m proud to say that to this day, I have probably gotten rid of over a third of all of our possessions. I am far from done, but it already feels so good! I feel so much lighter!

There is so much less to clean, less to look at, less to organize, less to worry about, and I can’t wait to purge even more!

After a very emotional and tough two years for our family, I am finding my own way of therapy. I am finding that Simplicity is Beautiful. Basics are Easier. Details can make things complicated. Other people, their opinions and expectations, can be daunting.

But when I act a little selfish and focus on just what my family and I need, it’s easier. Somehow through the emotion and clutter, I have found my new balance and clarity. At first it was a necessity to survive the circumstances we were dealt, but over time it has become a new way of life.

I have always been an organized person. And most friends would probably attest to the fact that my house, no matter how large and full, always had order. I used to do a lot of volunteering, event planning, and more, and I would like to think I did it all pretty well.

But when traumatic event struck our little family, all of those balls I was juggling just dropped. I felt like I was falling. I even sometimes feel like I fell off the face of the planet.

It has taken me almost two years to get to this point, but I slowly feel like I’m coming back. I’m coming back in my own way, on my terms, and with new priorities in mind.

I still care what others think of me, and I truly want to be liked. I want to get back to helping others again, being involved in social settings, and doing things within the community. But no longer do I feel responsible for so much, and it’s freeing.

For the past 11 years, I have spent an incredible amount of time doing tasks and housework that often seemed endless and pointless. I’m choosing now to live in a different way. I want to spend more time running around outside with my kids, and actually do a few things for myself. But in order to do that, something in my life had to give, and for me it was the house and the “stuff” in it.

I will admit that most of my relationships have changed as well. My friendships, extended family relationships, and even some professional partnerships have changed. Some have been easier to let go of than others, and some people I deeply miss. But I hope with these lifestyle changes, it will afford me the time and energy to work on those relationships that I still hold dear.

Life is never easy, and it can throw us curve balls from time to time. But I hope that I can teach my kids that it doesn’t mean life is over. It just means you dial it back to the basics, re-adjust, and move forward in a new way. And if you can do all of that, it will make you stronger, and teach you some very valuable life lessons along the way.

And right now, life is teaching me that there truly is beauty in simplicity.